By Noma Faingold
(July 31, 2025)
The summer camp movie has become its own genre. By now, what audiences have come to expect is low-brow comedy (balanced by a poignant lesson), with hits like, “Wet Hot American Summer” (2001) and “Meatballs” (1979). Continue reading
Recipes by Joan Nathan
(updated January 28, 2025))
My Life in Recipes is new cookbook from the James Beard Award–winning, beloved author that uses recipes to look back at her life, her family history, and her personal journey discovering Jewish cuisine from around the world.
Joan is appearing with book signings across the U.S.
Joan will be speaking on Thursday, January 30, 2025, 6-8pm at Clio’s in Oakland, CA about My Life in Recipes: Food, Family and Memories and A Sweet Year: Jewish Celebrations and Festive Recipes for Kids and Their Families: A Cookbook, and how making food with friends and family is now more than ever a delight and a requisite. Tickets and more info here.
Check more appearances by Joan here.
An interview with Film Director Bess Kargman
By Noma Faingold
(July 18, 2024)
Director Bess Kargman knew going in that prolific songwriter Diane Warren, the subject of her latest documentary, doesn’t fully trust anybody. “It’s not in her nature,” Kargman said. “The biggest challenge was earning her trust. I had to navigate when to push her. She would get really anxious sitting in a chair too long and being away from her work.”
Diane Warren: Relentless screens on August 3, at 3:30 p.m., at the Piedmont Theatre, (4186 Piedmont Ave., Oakland) during the 44th Annual San Francisco Jewish Film Festival, July 18-August 4. Complete Festival Information and tickets.
In connection with Gerald Peary’s interview with Mel Brooks we offer some tasty bites from the comedian.
Continue reading
By C.J. Hirschfield
(March 10, 2023)
The documentary feature All the Beauty and the Bloodshed is actually three movies in one. Directed by 2015 Academy Award winner Laura Poitras (Citizenfour), the film explores the art, life, and political activism of internationally renowned artist Nan Goldin, whose story could not be more compelling. Through her photos, slideshows, interviews and video footage, we get a real sense of what inspired both her art and her activism.
Assembled by Gary Meyer
(Updated November 21, 2022)
The theatrical release of a new documentary by Lisa Hurwitz, The Automat, has taken me back in time with its wonderful clips from classic movies and discussions of food favorites of our youth from Baked Macaroni and Cheese, Chicken Pot Pie to Custard Cups and Pumpkin Pie. It is essential viewing for those interested in the history of restaurants in the 20th Century, the combining of technology and home-cooked meals and a trip down memory lane even if you were born too late to actually visit one. But we also cover contemporary attempts at automated food. We have included many photos, film clips, recipes, music, and related links to supplement your enjoyment of The Automat now playing in theaters and at film festivals—only on the big screen.
By C.J. Hirschfield
October 21, 2022
In the Jewish religion, “LeChaim!” means “to life,” and is the traditional toast.
In 2019, 92-year old Eli Timoner chose death instead, and his journey is recorded in the insightful and moving new documentary, Last Flight Home.
By C.J. Hirschfield
July 19, 2022
In the upcoming (2023) Netflix biographical film Maestro, based on the life of renowned conductor/composer/pianist Leonard Bernstein, directed by and starring Bradley Cooper with Martin Scorsese and Steven Spielberg producing, there is a scene already circulating on social media of Bernstein passionately kissing his male lover.
You will not find this sort of scene depicted in the new documentary film Bernstein’s Wall, which has its San Francisco premiere at the 42nd San Francisco Jewish Film Festival, July 21-August 7. What you will see, however, is a richly textured biography of a man whose remarkable story includes a deep commitment to his Jewish heritage, to political activism, to his art, to teaching, and to his family. His bisexuality, not so much. Continue reading
By Joyce Goldstein
A-Sham celebrates the food of the Levant (Israel, Jordan, Syria, and Lebanon) in a three-day event where Arab and Jewish chefs cook their traditional foods together, sharing family recipes and culture.
BREAKING BREAD, a new documentary by Beth Elise Hawk focuses on the annual A- Sham Arabic Food Festival in Haifa, a city with a healthy cultural life enjoyed by both Arabs and Jews.
Joyce Goldstein has written 28 cookbooks, been a chef at Chez Panisse and her own Mediterranean restaurant Square One in San Francisco. Currently she is a consultant to restaurants and for product/recipe development. Her recipes present the foods of Italy, Spain, France, Greece, Turkey, the Middle East and North Africa.
She has selected some recipes for our readers from two of her books, The New Mediterranean Jewish Table and Saffron Shores.
By C.J. Hirschfield
This meme regarding the controversial teaching of critical race theory in schools showed up in my Facebook feed this week: “If black and brown children are old enough to experience racism, white children are old enough to learn about it.”
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